In this activity, students practice plotting points in the coordinate plane to make polygons.

In the digital version of the activity, students use an applet to plot points in the coordinate plane. The applet allows students to drag points to their location in the coordinate plane and quickly check their accuracy. The digital version may be helpful for students to quickly plot and adjust points of polygons without needing to erase.

The purpose of the discussion is to emphasize the connection between numbers, the coordinate plane, and geometry. To highlight these connections, ask:

• “How is the coordinate plane related to the number line?” (The coordinate plane has two axes that are both number lines.)
• “How are we able to make polygons in the coordinate plane?” (The vertices of a polygon are plotted as points in the coordinate plane.)

Complete the connection by explaining to students that the coordinate plane allows us to describe shapes and geometry in terms of numbers. This is how computers are able to create two- and three-dimensional images even though they can only interpret numbers.

In this activity students practice plotting coordinates in all four quadrants and find horizontal and vertical distances between coordinates in a puzzle. Students must determine from the information given that each grid square has length 2.

The purpose of this discussion is for students to see that it is possible to find distances and describe situations involving movement using the coordinate plane. This idea is important because it means we can use numbers (in this case, pairs of numbers in the coordinate plane) to model situations that involve distance or movement, which will be useful in later lessons. To highlight these ideas, consider asking:

• "How were you or your partner able to find the coordinates in the maze? Did you come up with any strategies or shortcuts?"
• "How did you find the distances that Andre and Jada traveled?"
• "What other situations involving movement could be represented with a coordinate plane?"

Students may come up with examples like board games, maps, and perhaps even three-dimensional examples.